


The tides are turning

by TheGearinator



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Avatar Universe, Blood, Dark!Korra, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Smut, F/F, Gun Violence, Guns, Hostage Situations, Kidnapping, Killing, Killing of Innocents, Past Makorra - Freeform, Redemption, Revenge killing, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-02
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-24 10:25:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4915954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGearinator/pseuds/TheGearinator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Korra was framed, now she's got life in prison and she wants revenge on those that put her there, she needs to get out, and a VIP visiting the prison is her ticket. What will she do when she gets out? And how will she go about it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. To get out of the hell hole...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [A_Fazey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Fazey/gifts).



> So this is for A_Fazey as it was her birthday a little while ago and she set us the prompt of 'Korra escaping from prison and then kidnapping Asami for leverage as she helps clear her name' So I figured I'd do it, I love her RCPD story and so the least I can do to say thanks and happy birthday is write this. 
> 
> As for the story, I hope you all enjoy it! :)
> 
> Also URS - United Republic Ship (Like HMS)

Korra wakes up with a groan of discomfort, last night had been hard on her. She’d managed to finalise the last part of her plan, that she’ll get out of this hell hole and take him down if it’s the last thing she does. Korra rolls over and throws her legs on the side of her ‘bed’, which is more like a metal frame with a sheet of cotton on top. She slouches her head down, her hands supporting it as if she has a headache as she looks down her orange jumpsuit. With a deep contented sigh, she stands up and makes her way to her cell gate as it’s almost time for roll call.

 

She waits, mulling over how she’ll go about getting in contact with her father. As the names are read out, she lets her mind wander to the freedom that’s on the horizon, but she knows she shouldn’t as there’s no 100% guarantee that she’ll be able to  escape after all. But nonetheless, her mind goes to Mako, her boyfriend. They’d had plans for a life, a future before this mess, and she’s looking forward to seeing him again if… when, she gets out.

 

In just over a month, there will be a couple of VIPs visiting here, some hotshots from Republic City that funded and designed this prison. Future Tech representatives or something, Korra doesn’t care, they could be the fucking president and his wife for she cares,it’s just as long as it gives her the possibility of escaping; her ticket out of this cage. And she’s not going to let them leave without her, or she’s going to die trying.

 

Roll call ends and the cell gates open, Korra makes her way down the block and into the mess hall, everyone makes way for her. Korra’s got a military history, she was in the navy and was in command of the best cruiser the world has ever seen, the URS Raava. Now however she’s sitting in prison with a life sentence, she was framed and now she’s going to get her revenge. Most importantly however, because of her military past, she knows how to kill a man in twenty different ways with her left hand, and another twenty with her right. Two days into her life sentence, someone already made a move on her. Korra broke the other inmate’s arm in two places and her leg as well, and the result of that was her being put into solitary confinement for two weeks, and her attacker was in the infirmary for a month. When Korra got let out of the confinement, rumors had been spreading of the ‘new girl’. But before she managed to get to her cell, she was jumped by three of her old attacker's friends. Korra dropped them all and spent another month in solitary confinement. When she got out that time, she had acquired the reputation of ‘I’m better than you, and I don’t care about the solitary,’ everyone started avoiding her and no one made a move on her again. Every once in awhile though, someone would try something and Korra would drop them, but on the whole, the rule of the prison was ‘No matter how hard and tough you are, Korra’s harder and tougher, and she doesn’t care’.

  
Korra counts as the days pass. She constructs and calculates, going over different methods all the time, trial and error. Eventually, she formulates one; one that ensures the highest possibility and chance of escaping. Future Tech designed this place to be inescapable, and maybe it was to the common inmate, but if you think hard enough, think outside the box. There’s always flaws in the capabilities of humans. Korra, an ex-commander, is no common inmate. She has a plan set in motion, and all she has to do is now is simply wait she’s got everything, apart from the VIPs, they’re the key to her getting out of here.

  
Korra makes her way over to her table and sits down. Her meal is as bland as ever, she was surprised when she came here, to only find out that there was actually food worse than the navy’s, but either way, she’s hardened her taste buds and can stomach the food for what it is; a source of energy for her life. After her ‘breakfast’, Korra makes her way to the courtyard, smirking to herself as numbers of people shuffle out of her way.

  
She settles into her routine: push ups, sit ups, crunches, and pull ups on the windowsill of whatever block she happens to be closest to. She may not have the high energy diet she used to have in the navy, but she’s not going to let her physique go. After a couple of hours for what seemed fast for Korra, she slumps down against the wall and rests for a little while. When lunch time comes, she goes back to the hall and repeats much the same process as with breakfast, only this time with different coloured crap on her tray. As lunch ends, she makes her way back out the courtyard and starts jogging laps; she usually works in the saw mill, but she has every Fridays off, which she then spends working out as much as she can. It’s not like she doesn’t work out every other day whenever she can, the difference is, she doesn’t pass out with a load of sawdust mixed in with her sweat. It’s her routine: wake up, breakfast, work or work out, lunch, work or work out, dinner, work out until she passes out, and repeat. Working out and the tedious work in the mill clears her mind, allows her to think, this is when she’d made her many plans, that all boiled down to this one. That will work.

  
It’s now time to work herself into a state of unconscious bliss, and that’s exactly what she does. With her muscles screaming at her and trying to burst into flames, she sets out for more exercise and continues with day to day life. The days and weeks blur, and she hears more and more rumors surrounding the mystery VIPs as apparently, one of them is much more important than the other. A couple have said that it’s a Sato themself. Korra doesn't know much about the Sato’s themselves, but what she does know is that any moron that builds a prison and then decides to visit it and check on the inmates gets everything that’s coming to them.

  
The VIP is coming in three weeks, and Korra’s counting down the days as if she were a child waiting for Santa to bring her presents, though in a twisted sort of way, _they_ are the bringing her presents when she thinks about it.

  
  


\----- Three Weeks Later -----

  
  


Korra wakes up earlier, she didn’t exercise at all yesterday as she wanted to conserve her energy for today. Her plan is relatively simple. Wait for the Warden and Co. to make their rounds escorting the VIPs. Once they’re done and all the inmates are let out of the cells, Korra figures she’ll have a couple of hours of the VIPs observing in the CCTV and during that time, she’d cause a riot. She’s no stranger to violence and tactical thinking, so causing riots wouldn’t be much a problem for her especially when the prison consists mainly people who have broken laws. And in the ensuing chaos, she’d make her way to warden’s office, taking one of the two VIPs hostage and get the fuck out of the prison, dumps the VIP in one way or another. She’ll kill them if that’s what it has to come down to. After she’s out, she goes about bringing _him_ down.

  
And that’s what she does, she waits with her hands through the bars of her cell, looking out to the cell block. Eventually, the warden and the VIPs come into her sights. There’s a rather podgy man in an expensive suit, a woman on his arm, and another, she presumes to be their daughter trailing behind them. That’s her mark. The daughter. Her ticket out. Korra inwardly laughs as she looks down at them, _audacious fuckers, wearing a poncy fucking dress in prison, prissy rich girl doesn’t know what’s about to hit her._

 __  
As the VIPs draw past her cell, the daughter looks up and catches Korra’s eye. Korra glares down at her; she looks at Korra for a few seconds before her eyes snap open wide as if she recognises Korra, but either way, she spins and rushes to catch up with her parents. Korra smirks as the girl runs off, she has to admit that she does look good in the dress. _Shame. She’s probably going to die._ __  


__  
A few minutes later, the cell doors open and everyone shuffles out to the courtyard. After getting the ‘nutritious’ gery shit named breakfast, Korra looks for her opening. She makes her way over to the way that she sits at, and finds the loose brick. She picks it up and looks around the courtyard, people have walked of into groups. Perfect. She walks over and stands close but not in a way that she’s _with_ them. She looks around and spies the groups ‘rivals’ at the other end of the benches. Korra lines them up and swiftly throws the brick at them, hitting one in the shoulder, but it does the job and all of them in the group turn to face the direction the brick was thrown and see their ‘rivals’ and all hell breaks loose. They rush over and a massive brawl erupts in the ground, more people get dragged in and eventually after a short while, the sirens begin to howl and it seems as though all the prisoners are beating the crap out of each other. __  


  
Korra in the meantime, is stalking her way back to alpha block, the home of the warden and his VIPs. She’s memorized the path, the numbers of cameras, every angle it’s pointed and directed to. . All she can hear around her are angry shouting and yelling, tables and chairs banging, and occasional gunshots. As she reaches to the next corridor, a guard comes around with a gun drawn. Today is Korra’s lucky day, it seems. She grabs the barrel of the rifle and tilts it up, slides into his body, and she slams her other fist into his stomach. Then, bringing her elbow to her face, she slams it into his nose and all they both hear is a loud ‘crunch’ as the front of his skull caves in. Korra wraps her left arm around the back of the guard’s head and draws her elbow back before repeatedly slamming it into his face. Eventually, he falls to the ground with most of his nose and front of his face now within his head. Korra leans down and picks up the rifle, taking his ammunition along the way. She then continues to make her way to the Warden’s office. Now being armed with a rifle, nothing is going to stop her now.

  
She’s walking down the corridors, light on her feet and her finger resting on the trigger. An inmate rushes to a corner in front of her and turns towards Korra. She doesn’t have time for this. Korra raises the gun up, which points directly to flesh and pulls the trigger. The loud shot echoes, and the man collapses in front of her, with a hole planted in the middle of his forehead. Korra continues on and before she knows it, three people are dead by her trigger. Now, she’s standing at the stairs to the warden’s section. There’s more gunfire from up there and Korra’s ready.

  
She crouches up the stairs and sees 5 guards have made a makeshift barricade outside the warden’s office. Korra counts her shots and decides to reload. She drops the mag and takes another out of her jump suit. She’s familiar with the rifle she’s currently holding as she’s used it before. The FN FAL is a standard issue battle rifle and fires a bullet which measures to 7.62mm, to be precise. She puts the new mag in and cocks the gun. Looking back up, she sees her target looking at her through the warden’s room. There’s panic and fear etched all over her pretty face.

  
Korr raises the gun aims at the first guard’s head. She pulls the trigger and red paints the window, the other guards turn to see what happened, but Korra’s already moved onto the next guard. In a matter of seconds the five guards are dead and the wall has a new coat of red and pink paint. Korra stands and walks, with gun raised, to the office. She picks and finds the keys on one of the guards and unlocks the door. Taking a deep breath, she stands next to the door and prepares for the clique tactical breach. At the last second she changes her mind, she leans down and picks up one of the guards as after all, a body is much more bulletproof than a jumpsuit. She holds the corpse to her chest and kicks the door open, and a gunshot is heard, resulting  the corpse to be served as what Korra picked it up for. Korra reacts quickly, aims her rifle at the warden and pulls the trigger again, hitting him in the throat. Blood pours out of his neck and it drenches his desk and the floor around him. Korra looks at the VIPs and drops her gun so it’s pointing at the man’s knees. She shoots. The man falls, shouting out in pain. His wife rushes to his side and Korra lunges at the girl.

  
Korra spins the butt of her rifle around and slams it into the side of the woman’s head, knocking her out. Before the woman can even hit the ground, Korra’s wrapped her arm around the woman’s waist and has put the barrel of the gun to her temple. Korra looks at the man and the woman. With a voice of cold steel, she demands, “How did you get here?!”

  
The man, still moaning in pain, doesn’t respond. But his wife does, “W-we came here by car, it’s outside. Please don’t kill my daughter, please!” Her voice is strained and broken as tears of fear fall down her cheeks. She’s torn between getting on her knees and begging this convict to not kill Asami, and staying by Hiroshi’s side.

  
Korra looks at them both and with the same unwavering voice, says, “No harm will come to the girl if you give me the keys to your car and a phone.” Korra’s in the most intense staring match she’s ever had and the woman nods her head vigorously, before reaching into her husband’s trouser pockets, bringing out the phone and the keys.

  
“Pease! When will be able to see her again?” the woman says as she reaches over the man and places the items in Korra’s hand, with her hands shaking in horror.

  
“That, I’ve not decided yet, but what I can say is that I was framed to be in here. I used to be in the navy, and I will not harm your daughter if you don’t get in my way. I promise you that,” Korra says before turning and throwing the unconscious woman over her shoulders and making a break for the entrance.

  
The trip to the entrance of the prison is short, the guards put the weapons down as Korra walks past with a Sato as a hostage, and the inmates are quick to recognise that the one inmate that no one fucks with, now has a gun. Korra pushes open the double doors that lead to the car park, and is met by more blaring sirens and a couple of police cars. The officers in them are nowhere to be seen, _probably off trying to deal with this riot, suckers._ Korra laughs to herself before hauling the woman over to the car. She looks at it and recognises it as one of the classic Satomobiles. Korra unlocks it and opens the boot before dumping the woman in it. She closes the boot and sprints round to the side of the car, getting in and starts the engine. She places her rifle on the passenger seat and starts driving.

  
As she gets closer to the exit, there's gunshots behind her and some of the glass breaks. _Fuckers! have the audacity to shoot at me! Time to go then_. Korra slams her foot down on the accelerator and is cannoning down the road that leads to the main gate. As she gets there, she sees the gates are already open, presumably from the police breaking them down. Korra pushes her foot down harder and goes through them in a blur.

  
Korra drives for a short while before slowing down and looking in the rearview mirror, there’s no one chasing her, there’s no prison, there’s nothing but road and other people driving. A massive smile spreads across Korra’s face and she lets her head loll back against the headrest as the best thought she’s had in a long time floats through her mind.

  
_I’m free_


	2. Doctor! Doctor!

Korra’s broken out of her dazed, semi-euphoric state by a moan of pain coming from the boot. Korra knows she needs to ditch the car as there’s no police following them; it means that they're all either taking care of the remaining riot, or they took Korra’s plates and are planning to come after her later and with past experience under her belt, Korra’s not going to take any chances like that, so, she needs to ditch the car.

 

She looks around and spies a little dirt track on the road she’s on. She starts the car while ignoring the muffled noises of pain emanating from behind her. She drives down the road and turns down the dirt path. It’s quiet down on the path, there’s forest surrounding her and it’s peaceful, almost tranquil. It puts Korra at ease, despite her situation. The dirt path tapers off further into the forest but Korra pulls over into a small clearing before getting out and walking around to the back of the car.

 

As Korra pulls round the back, she notices a bullet hole through the thin black metal of the boot. _Well, shit._ Korra hastily opens the boot to reveal the pale woman, who’s now even more pale looking with red puffy eyes and blood pooled around her legs. She stiffens her gaze, examining the woman prudently from head to toe, before breathing a small sigh of relief. The woman has a bullet wound. It’s through her lower shin, but it’s not life-threatening or fatal. The Sato releases a small whimper of pain and looks up at her captor, who stands there looking at her in a cold manner. Korra pulls down the top of the jumpsuit and then takes off the tank top underneath. She leans down and grips the woman’s leg, causing her to shout out in pain, but Korra ignores her a grips the leg even more tighter, to stop the weak thrashing. As Korra inspects the wound, she comes to the conclusion that it was a clean through shot. She leans down and wraps her tank top around Sato’s leg and pulls it tight, forcing direct pressure, causing another jagged scream to fly from Sato’s mouth. The wound will keep bleeding, but it’s better than leaving it to pour out blood freely. Korra needs to get moving but this woman needs proper medical attention and Korra’s stuck with a few choices: either help this woman and potentially get caught again, or leave her and break her promise to Mr. Sato’s wife.

 

Korra looks back to the main road. There is a clinic just over two miles away. She looks back to the woman and states, “There’s a clinic two miles from here, you’re going to die if you don’t get there. Good luck,” Korra turns and starts walking back round to the front of the car when she hears the woman try and say something. Against her better judgment, Korra walks back around and looks down at the woman, “What was that?” she demands in a stern, almost challenging voice.

 

“P-please...I’ll never make it there. Please, y-you have to help me.” Her voice is broken, raspy, and begging. Korra’s cold gaze doesn’t falter, as well as her current decision. She shakes her head in disapproval and before she opens her mouth to state it in words as well, the wounded woman opens hers, first, “I-I can help you, you need money and other stuff, I’ll do that. Please, don’t let me die here...” More pudgy tears form on her eyes, begging for Korra’s help. Here eyes are a mix of fear and desperation, she’s scared of death, or something about it. Korra looks down at her with disdain. _Pathetic. One day it’s going to happen to us all, deal with it when it comes and if it comes now, so be it._ This does change things though; Korra does need these things and what Sato is saying does make her think.

 

A short time later, Korra nods her head, “Fine, but you’d better live up to this, or you’ll wish you’d have died.” Sato’s eyes widen slightly, but she nods vigorously nonetheless. Korra reaches down and grabs her legs out the car, making her sit up. The woman wobbles, quivers, but stays sitting. Korra goes back around to the front of the car and takes her rifle out, putting the strap over her head so it hanging by her side. Before she goes back to Sato, she checks the time; it’s just past eight at night, which means that she has an hour before the clinic is likely to close. _This could work out in our favour,_ Korra thinks. It takes an average person about half hour forty minutes at a casual walking pace to do two miles; Korra’s trained to march ten miles in hour and fifty minutes, meaning two miles in eleven minutes. But the only problem is that she  has a wounded woman with her, meaning it could very well take more than forty minutes. With any luck, she’ll probably get there in time for closing.

  
Korra walks around and hoists Asami up with her right arm as it was her left leg that took the bullet, “Come on, Sato, work with me here!” Korra growls out as Asami can barely even  stand on her own. Asami just whimpers as she starts holding herself up a little.

 

“I’m sorry, it hurts,” she whispers out amongst her noises of pain. Korra shakes her head and slides Sato’s arm along her to her opposite shoulder so their chests are flush and Asami’s bad leg is next to Korra. She nods in the direction they need to go in and they slowly shuffle their way to the clinic. It’s spent in mostly silence, apart from Asami’s pained noises, and Korra’s annoyed grunts.

 

They’re about half mile out and have been ‘walking’ for half an hour when Asami whines and goes limp at Korra’s side. Korra looks down at her, “For fucks sake!” Korra pulls the unconscious woman up further and across her shoulders and breaks into a fast jog; she’s not about to let her source of money die on her like this.

 

Korra manages the last bit in record time and as she goes up to the clinic, she notes that it’s five to nine on the giant clock on the wall. She smiles to herself as she walks into the front, there’s no receptionist and she makes her way around a couple of corridors, she scans the walls and ceilings and notes that she can’t see any CCTV. She sees a doctor leave a room and so grips Asami tighter with one hand and takes her rifle in the other; she points it at the doctor and kicks the radiator next to her to get his attention. “You a doctor?” The man’s arms raise up above his head immediately, startled, as he soon as he realized there’s a gun pointing at him, “You need to help her, where do we go?” The frightened doctor uses his left hand to gesture to the room he just left and Korra does the same to tell him to go in.

 

Korra walks in with the gun still raised, the room is layed out like a standard operating theater and Korra puts Asami down on the table in the centre. “She’s been shot in the shin, it’s a through shot but she’s lost a lot of blood and it’s probably infected. She needs a small transplant and the wound to be sealed,” Korra states in the same cold and hard voice as in the prison. The doctor nods frantically and cleans his hands while Korra sits in a seat at the corner of the room, her gun never dropping. A few seconds later Korra stands and makes her way to the doctor, who starts shaking in fear a little, she gets to him and pats him down with the rifle at her side. She takes his phone and other personal belongings and puts them on the side, out of his reach. “Is there anyone else here?” She asks sternly, the doctor shakes his head swiftly and explains that everyone else has already gone home for the night, he was locking up. Korra nods to Asami, prompting him to get to work, while she goes over to the door to lock it. With that done she returns to her seat and raises the gun again.

 

The doctor goes to work and cleans Asami’s wounds before stitching them up. He then walks to the supply closet and takes out some heavy antibiotics and administers them to Asami. He then turns to Korra, visible shaking, “W-we don’t have any blood stored here.” His voice trembling and wavering in fear, “BUT! There is a hospital in the next town that does, you can go there. Or you can leave her for a day or two and her body will naturally produce the blood.” Korra hums and thinks.

 

“Do you have morphine here?” The man nods. “Good. We’ll take some of that, and I’ll be needing a couple of nutrient IVs, and your car.” The man’s eyes go wide at Korra’s demands and they show deep fear as he stutters out something under his breath. “Speak up, asshole!” Korra demands with a loud voice.

 

“Those are controlled subst-” He’s cut of by Korra’s sinister laughter.

 

“Well, as controlled as they maybe, my bullets aren’t. I suggest you relive control of them, before I do it for you.” Korra’s eyes narrow in challenge and the man blinks and slowly nods his head. He reaches over to the table that has his stuff on and takes his car keys from it and then throws them to Korra; he then walks back over to the supply room and open it again. He takes out what Korra asked for and turns around, walking back over to the table. He places the items on the table, “I-Is that everything?” he asks tentatively. He hears a shuffling behind him but doesn’t turn around, fearing what he would see.

 

Korra’s got almost all she needs. Asami’s leg is sealed and clean, she’s swimming with antibiotics and there’s now morphine and enough nutrients to keep Asami alive for two weeks. There’s only one thing to take care of now. _Can’t have any witnesses now, can I?_ She takes the rifle strap over her head and puts it down on the chair she was sitting on. Then, she walks over to the table the doctor put his surgical equipment on and takes the largest scalpel there is on there. She walks up behind him and brings her left hand over his mouth while her right hand brings the scalpel to his throat and plunges it deep. It happens in an instant, Korra drags the blade across the front of his throat and lets his body fall to the floor, all manner of choking sounds coming from him as blood pours from his throat and onto the floor as well as down into his lungs. Korra puts the scalpel in her pocket and then searches the man’s stuff on the table, while he’s still bleeding out. She gets his other keys, hopefully for his locker in the staff room, and his wallet. She finds them and then goes back out the room to the staff room, leaving his corpse on the floor.

 

She gets to the staff room and starts checking all the lockers with his keys until one opens. Inside this one, is a large duffle bag. Korra grins and takes it out and heads back to the theater with it. She goes in and takes out the man’s casual clothes and packs her stuff into it including her rifle. She then strips down, shoving her jumpsuit in the bag. She changes into the doctor’s clothes, and finally, zips up the bag. Once the bag is over her shoulder and is tightened to her satisfaction, she reaches down and lifts Sato up in bridal style, considering she’s taller than Korra she’s surprisingly light, though that could be because Korra trained with heavy weights. Korra carries her back out the clinic and into the parking lot. As she’s going, her eyes scan the walls and ceiling, it surprises her that there isn’t any CCTV here, though she supposes it’s not like the clinic is a likely place to get robbed. She gets to the parking lot and fishes the keys out of her pocket. She clicks the unlock button and the Audi A4 in the corner flashes open. Korra smirks to herself as she walks to it and opens the back doors to put Sato in. She does so and then fastens the three seatbelts over her before putting the duffel bag in the front passenger seat and walking round to the driver’s door.

  
Once she’s in, she starts the engine and pulls out of the car park. Korra scrutinizes at each  signs on the road as she drives and moments later, she finally spots a fast food joint. Her mouth instantly salivates at the thought of real food again. She pulls off and drives to the burger joint. It doesn’t take long before she pulls into the drive through. She takes out the doctor’s wallet and it has a hundred yauns in it. _Eh, there could always have been less, I suppose._ Korra shrugs and pulls up and orders the biggest burger there is on the menu, eight yuans later, she’s munching on a truly massive burger with a shit eating grin on her face.

  
All she can think is: _Damn, it’s good to be out of there._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? 
> 
> As alway, massive thanks to pugoppa/wallflowerr for all the help :)


	3. Don't leave me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I listened to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrxErfKLzfM) while writing it, that should say enough really.

Korra pulls over and into the motel car park, Sato is still unconscious and had been for the last seven hours she had been driving. Korra had pulled over every half hour just to check her pulse to see if her ticker was still ticking and every time it was. She couldn’t help but worry over the unconscious woman as she was her most valuable resource at the moment and Korra couldn’t afford to let her die.

 

The convict gets out the car and shuts the door, she looks around the car park and there’s more than a few random cars dotted about it; in the far corner the lamp flickers as the sun rises slowly over the horizon. This motel is a special one, it’s owned by her drill sergeant’s bother. Bumi was her drill sergeant and he had been amazing for Korra to train under, while he was still the cliché drill sergeant you see in old war films barking out orders and swearing at every opportunity, he was also rather eccentric, to say the least. Back then they’d got on amazingly well, that was the old Korra that got on amazingly well with him, but the new Korra? Probably not so much, if she guesses. Either way, this was ‘Tenzin’s nomad motel’ or at least the first one of them, there was a load all over the place, but this was the one that Tenzin ran himself.

 

Korra had a past with Tenzin; a long past that had a mix of emotions and memories. Korra loves him and his wife and finds it reasonably funny when she looks at Bumi and himself. Where Bumi was funny and seemingly carefree, Tenzin was like the mentor and father she never really had. She really bonded with Tenzin when they first met, despite the circumstances in which that first meeting happened. Now though Korra was here to ask favour, she hopes that he would believe her, that he would believe that she is innocent. After all of what she’s lost, she doesn’t think she can bare to lose him again, much less have him hate her. It would kill her. She feels a couple of tears form in her eyes at that thought, so she quickly wipes them away. _He wouldn’t do that, he will trust me, he won’t leave me like the rest… I hope._

 

Korra walks down the parking lot and towards the reception building, she passes cars of all sorts. There’s something in the morning air, crispness, she can’t quite describe it perfectly but it brings a smile to her face. In the dim morning light, the lamps in the parking lot are still on and as she walks, one of them flickers distantly, barely staying on for more than a couple of seconds at a time. It’s strange how things can bring back memories; Korra shudders as she represses them. She nears the entrance and she takes a deep breath, preparing herself for all possible outcomes of this, or at least trying to.

 

She looks in through the glass door and sees Pema, Tenzin’s wife, and she’s not sure to be either relieved or disappointed that it isn’t Tenzin. She pushes the door open and the little bell goes off above the door and Pema turns to look. The mother drops whatever it was she was holding and brings her hands to her mouth as her eyes go wide with shock. “Korra?! I-Is that you?” her voice is soft and quiet as if she’s scared it might scare the tan woman in front of her off.

 

Korra simply nods her head slightly and Pema breaks down in tears as she stands and rushes over to the ex-commander to pull her into a tight hug that Korra eagerly returns. “We thought we lost you, we thought we’d never see you again,” the older womans voice breaks as she cries into the chest of her non official daughter. “How… I don’t understand, you were imprisoned, we saw you go. How did you get out?”

 

Shedding a few tears of her own at being held by Pema again, she decides to give her some plausible deniability, and so holds off on the major details, “I started a riot and car jacked someone's car while the guards were busy. Look, I’m wanted right now and there’s a lot you don’t know, but I’m innocent I promise you. I need a place to lay low a little while I figure things out. Can I stay here, please?” She asks while fighting off more tears.

 

“Of course dear, and we never doubted that you were innocent, we could never imagine that you would work with them, not after what they did to you. You’re welcome to stay here as long as you need, Korra,” Pema says with a smile as she pulls back from the hug with tears welling in her eyes. At the sight of the tears in her eyes, Korra can’t hold back any more and she collapses into the arms that were waiting for her, she sobs into the chest of the older woman and cries. Letting the pain of the past years flow again.

 

A door creaks open behind reception and a bald man steps out; at the sight of his wife missing, he quickly scans the room and sees a sight he wasn’t ever expecting to, but nonetheless, he makes his way over to his wife and his child. When he gets there, he envelops them both in a large hug and Korra looks up to him. When she sees who it is, the flood gates open further, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Korra’s tears are blurring her vision as she’s wrapped in arms, it’s been years since she’s felt this and her heart aches with memories of what she once had.  

 

They stay there, all three of them crying, tears flowing freely down their cheeks, for a long time. Korra, not letting up her hold for the fear that she’ll lose them again, she cries into their shoulder and wheezes deep breaths as her walls tumble down; it has been so hard when they left her. It was Tenzin and Pema that had saved Korra, they’d rescued Korra and in time had replaced those that weren’t with her anymore, and then they left as well. Korra’s eyes stung and she became weak at the knees as she slid down to floor, Tenzin and Pema doing the same as their tears flowed down into their clothes.

 

“Don’t leave me, not again, please,” Korra whispers out between sobs as she clutches the arms that are smothering her, “please don’t go.” They both squeeze her tighter and rub soothing circles into her back, whispering soft reassurances into her ears as they do.

 

“We’re not going anywhere dear, we’ll always be here for you,” Pema says as she holds the trembling woman as close as possible.

 

A few minutes later Korra pulls herself away and Tenzin and Pema looks at her with red, bloodshot eyes. Korra smiles the first time in over a year, “I’ve got some stuff I need to get,” she rasps out and the owners both nod. Korra stands and turns and makes her way back out the door, as the door shuts she wipes the tears from her eyes as she goes to get everything.

 

After a white lie to both Tenzin and Pema about why she has an unconscious woman with her, she gets the keys to her own room and heads down to where her childhood was spent. As she opens the door and looks in both Tenzin and Pema stand behind her, she looks in and it looks exactly the same as when she left, more tears prick at her eyes as she lets the memories flow through her mind. She walks in and looks around at the bed that’s held her no matter how hard she’s cried, no matter how long for. She walks over and gently places the unconscious Sato down on the bed and takes one of the IVs from her bag.

 

Once Sato is wired up, she stands and looks around to room fighting to keep the tears back again. She looks over to Tenzin and Pema and nods with a faint smile, they both do the same and turn and leave. Korra sits at the edge of the bed and looks back at Sato, she can’t help but see the parallels and a couple of tears roll down her face as the pale skin and raven hair change into brown skin and chestnut wolf tails. After all that’s happened, she’s back to where it all began, and it’s only just beginning again. She won't let them take anyone like they took Tonraq and Senna, like they took Korra. She feels her tears run dry as her mind turns to them, her sadness turning to anger and she has to shake her head lest her emotions turn completely sour.

 

She stands and leaves her room with the intent to ask Pema for some form of drink, but as she nears, she hears Tenzin and Pema mention her name and she slows to hear what they have to say.

 

“Korra must know Tenzin, we can’t keep this from her forever, it’s not right,” Pema’s sweet voice says.

 

“I agree, but now is not the best time, Pema. Not after everything she’s been through, you heard her, ‘Don’t leave me again’ we can’t tell her yet.”

 

Korra’s heart speeds up as she hears those words and what they mean, someone else has gone, someone else has left Korra alone again, more tears well in her eyes as the thought passes her, someone else is gone. She pushes deep and walks around the corner, “Who? Who is it?” her voice is broken and hoarse with emotion as she asks the question. She’s already trembling a little, anxiety brimming wildly in her blood, extremely terrified of hearing the answer.

 

Tenzin and Pema turn around to look at her, Tenzin’s eyes slightly shocked at her appearance while Pema’s holding nothing but pity and Korra’s stomach drops at the sight of those eyes. Her heart clenches in her chest and she already knows who’s gone.

 

“Korra, we’re sorry. Mako’s with someone else now…” The older womans voice is cut off by a small cry as Korra drops to the floor. They walk over to her and kneel before as she cries. Again, someone Korra loves is gone, anyone would think by looking at Korra that she’d get angry at something like this, but in reality there’s nothing left but pain for Korra, everyone she’s ever loved has left and she can’t help but cry.

 

She lays on the floor curled up in a ball as she cries, Tenzin picks her up carefully and carries her down the hall to her room, her teary eyes leaking on his chest. He places her on the bed next to Sato and she instinctively curls up around her pillow like she had all those years ago, she cries for her loss, for the pain her heart is feeling. She lets the tears flow as all the happy memories she had with Mako turn sad, she’ll never have that again, just like she’ll never have Tonraq and Senna again. She cries into the pillow, her tears staining the cover and making it sodden, Tenzin and Pema look on with sad eyes as Korra cries herself to sleep again. A sight that they’re all too familiar with.

 

They turn and leave, listen as Korra’s weeps continue. She llies on her bed clutching her pillow tight to her chest. Her heart splitting in her chest as she repeats Pema’s words in her head, ‘With someone else now’ her eyes dry up as she runs out of tears to spill, but her dry sobs don’t stop. She’s left alone again, everyone leaves her, she thought it would get easier after the second time, but everyone’s gone again.

 

The blind rage and adrenaline that had fueled her the previous days has left her, now only replaced by more pain, more pain caused by forces out of her control As she sobs into the pillow she vows to herself that she won’t let the Red Lotus take any more people, she won't let anyone hurt like she is now.  

 

She lies on the bed, her heart broken, her face and pillow sodden with tears, her mind reeling with another loss to memorise. Her eyes slowly drift close as sleep takes her within its cold grasp.

 

Hours later, she wakes and blinks her eyes open. She stays lying on her side, the relief she felt yesterday, the anger she felt in the prison, all gone. Now, there’s nothing, she blinks at the wall covered in posters, looking past them, looking into nothing with her empty eyes.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you feel the feels? And I know that there wasn't actually that much explanation at all in this, it will come though so don't worry.


	4. New beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, if you follow me on tumblr you'll know why this is horribly past due, but anyway, here it is. I apologise for the delay, hope you people like it!

When Korra walks, it’s cold, she’s  numb, and her mind is filled with blanks. She rolls onto her sides and throws her legs off the side of the bed and looks at the walls that she had come to call home, despite how much loss they contained within. She looks over her shoulder and notes that Sato is still sleeping. She shakes her head as she stands, last night she’d resolved to end the Red Lotus, this morning she’s decided that emotions hurt far more than bullets, and she’s not going to let herself get hurt like that again.

 

Korra stands and walks over to the wardrobe and finds a load of her childhood clothes stashed inside. She sighs and hangs her head as she closes the door and makes her way to the shower. She strips down with marine-like efficiency and turns the water on, ice cold. She steps in and lets the water cascade around her, the chill clearing her mind and she drops her head back under the spray to cover her face. For minutes, she stands letting herself soak in the cold water, thinking about the Red Lotus, about Noatak, about Zaheer. About those that she plans to end.

 

She doesn’t know how or when, but she will kill them all. They’ve taken too much from her and from everyone else they’ve hurt and killed. She needs to get more information, she needs to see if anyone in the Navy believes in her. There is one, Kuvira. She was Korra’s second in command, and the only person to ever command Raava other than Korra. Kuvira and Baatar were Korra’s most loyal and trusted crew members, and more importantly, Korra best friends. _Let’s just hope friendship still counts for something now._

 

Korra steps out of the shower and looks into the basin mirror. She pulls over her shoulders and lets it hang, it reaches just past her breasts now, and it needs a cut. She watches silently with only her and Sato’s breathing for noise as small beads of water slide down her face; she names them, Tonraq, Senna, Mako, Naga, Sokka, Katara, Aang. And as they all fall down her face and off her chin she remembers their smiles, their faces. As they splash against the sink, she remembers their last moments, the blood staining her hands as she holds her dying father in arms as he tells her it’s going to be OK and that daddy just needs a sleep. She remembers as she runs from her dad’s red body to the house to tell Senna that dad needs help, she remembers as she bursts through the living room door to her mother lying on the floor with her throat cut open as red pours from it, she remembers as she looks upon her mother's dying form that there were men in the room pulling their trousers up, that her mother was naked, she remembers it took her over a year to realize what had happened.

 

Korra hangs her head as the memories of their last moments flow together, her hurt and pain turn to anger and she grips the sink in a vice grip as her jaw clenches. _They. Will. Pay._

She turns to the cabinet that hangs on the wall. She opens the doors and looks inside. Her hand reaches out and the cold metal of the siccours striker her palm as the fingers clasp around the tips. She brings them out and puts them on the sink, she looks into the mirror and brings her hair around the back of her neck and holds it in a tight tail with one hand. The other reaches down and picks up the scissors again; she brings them to her hair and roughly cuts, clumps of brown hair falling to floor out of her grip and the scissors straining at the volume of hair their being pushed through. The scissors make it through and she brings the hair around to the front of her face. She looks at it with disgust and throws it into the toilet. She looks back to the mirror and sighs as she looks at herself; her hair now hangs loose around her chin, in a messy bob, a faint smile pulls at her lips. The old Korra is dead, the one standing before her, the smallest of change, now a reborn woman. This Korra is new, this Korra is better, this Korra will succeed where the old one failed. _This Korra is who I am._

 

She shakes her head and the freshly cut hair waves in front of her face, she smiles a little more as she looks upon the new Korra. Korra turns around and picks the clothes from before and puts them on and heads back out into the room. She decides that she might as well learn a bit about what Sato she’s got, and evaluate how big of a target she’s picked up. Korra crosses the room in a couple of strides and pats down the sleeping Sato as she searches for a purse or something of the sort. She eventually finds what she’s looking tied to a belt under the dress, so she pulls down the zipper at the back of the dress, revealing the creamy expanse of the woman's back. Korra snarls to herself as she notes that it’s amazingly smooth and perfectly unmarked, the sight makes her envious and she has to draw her attention down to where the belt is before she does something she’s going to regret later. She finds the simple white belt around the woman’s waist and pulls the purse off it. Korra then hastily zips up the back of the dress again and walks over to the desk that sits in the corner of her room.

 

She sits in the swivel seat and turns the power on for her PC before opening the purse. As she does that, she feels unbridled rage swell within her. There’s a photo on the inside of the purse, it’s of Sato and her boyfriend, the same one that Korra used to call boyfriend as well, Mako. She reaches in and pulls out the photo. Korra rips it in half and again, she keeps going until the little pieces are hard to identify as any kind of photo. She throws her arms onto the desk and rests her head in palms as she tries to calm herself down with deep breaths. A few minutes later she’s calmer, but her scowl hasn’t left her face. She reaches over and picks up the purse again, this time going for the ID card she caught a brief glance off. ASAMI SATO, read the name and Korra grunts as she puts the purse down and powers up SatoNet Explorer on the PC, she quickly navigates to the default Sato search engine and searches Asami Sato.

 

The page fills with links to other sites, a Wiki page on her and infinite other pages that have delved into her private life. Korra checks out the Wiki and learns that she’s the heiress to Future Tech and that Asami has a Masters in engineering and has a black belt in two different forms of martial arts. Korra hums to herself as she continues to scroll down through the walls of text; eventually after a long time spent going from Wiki to Wiki learning as much as she can about Asami. A small note she finds humorous is that Asami has won a couple of beauty awards, but more important than that is she’s also won a ‘Badass Young Women Award’ as well, Korra learns that she’s won a load of those as well. Not surprising that she didn’t know about it see as she doesn’t read these kind of magazines, but the funny part is that Asami once said in an interview after coming second to Korra in the ‘Badass Young Women Award’. Asami said ‘Well, I look up to her, Korra is a very strong and powerful woman, she’s a role model for me and I accept that she is better than me in most respects…’ Korra just sniggers to herself as she rereads that line. _How’s your role model now, eh, Sato?_

Korra then quickly opens a new tab and searches ‘Asami Sato’ in the news part of the search engine and it appears that there are yet to be any significant news reports on the prison riot yet. Meaning one of two things, either the police and the Sato’s are trying to cover everything up, so that Future Tech doesn’t look and the Sato’s don’t look weak, or the news is simply yet to reach the news crews and TV stations, either is entirely possible. Korra just hopes it’s the first of the two, that would make her life a lot easier.

 

She shuts down the PC and stands up, making her way out of the room. Before she exits, she takes one more good look at the room and at it, her eyes linger at one of the dressers by the wall. She walks to it, opening and closing a couple of draws until she finds her underwear draw. She rummages around and eventually pulls out one of her belts. With a triumphant grin, she strides over to Sato and carefully bends her legs back and pulls her arms behind her back as well. Once her ankles are next to her wrists and her body is forming a bow like shape, she picks up the belt and ties all the limbs together, now that Korra knows that Asami can possibly pose a threat if she wanted to. She’s not going to take any chances.

 

Now that that is done, Korra stands again and walks out her door and down the hallway to the cafe area of the motel, she passes a family heading out the front door, waving goodbye to Tenzin. She clenches her fist as the bitter part of her hates that family can be a family and she can’t. She stands watching as the family head to a people carrier and load their gear into it, the whole time slowly clenching and unclenching her fist while Pema waits in the cafe watching her. Once the family drives off, Korra turns and starts walking back the way she was going. She makes eye contact with Pema and smiles at the older woman, who in return raises an eyebrow, questioning her smile. Korra just shakes her head and sits down.

 

“Can I have my usual, please, Pema?”

 

“Of course, dear. I like the new hair by the way, it suits you.” The woman’s older, softer voice and the words that are spoke bring a content smile to Korra’s face as she sits down and picks up the newspaper. A short while later, two sausage and bacon sandwiches, topped with fried egg and beans is placed in front of her and she smiles up at the older woman as nods her head in thanks. Pema does the same, still with a slightly confused look on her face. Korra just lazily digs into her breakfast as she reads through the news, as usual for her it’s all very boring and dull. That is, until she finds a page about the Red Lotus.

 

She puts the sandwich she’s eating down and her brows furrow in concentration as she reads.

 

**The Red Lotus, worse than we first thought?**

 

The Red Lotus, a terrorist organisation based in the Si Wong desert, have been quiet in the last year since former Captain Korra was imprisoned for working with them. Does this mean that she was working with them and now their plans have to go on hold? Or does this mean that Korra wasn’t actually working with them and now that she’s out of the way they can regroup and plan for more devastating attacks? In the following article, we’ll evaluate the likeliness of both of these scenarios and give our opinion on what this could mean for the leaders of the world.

 

Korra growls as she reads the opening paragraph, the mear mention that she’s actually working with the terrorist scumbags has her blood boiling; she feels Pema’s stare on the back of her head and she reigns the growling in. As she reads through the rest of the article, the growling stops completely and is eventually replaced by a semi smug smiles by the end of it. At least the papers are on her side. The general gist of the article was ‘The Red Lotus have done terrible things to Korra, why the flying fuck would she ever work with them?’ more eloquently worded obviously, but nonetheless the paper is on her side and she smiles to herself at this knowledge. She scans the bottom of the page to find the author of the article and sees that it written by a ‘Bolin Beifong’. She smiles as she reaches out and rips the name of the bottom of the paper and stuffs it into her pocket.

 

She’s got her first lead, she just needs Sato to wake up now.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.... errrr, how was that?

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts? Kudos? Follow me for updates and stuffs? thegearinator.tumblr.com
> 
> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> Also massive, huge thanks to Pugoppa/wallflowerr for being an amazing beta and making this readable


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